Under-21s told 29% more lies on job applications this year than last

Thursday 6 August 2009 10.47 EDT
First published on Thursday 6 August 2009 10.47 EDT

More under-21-year-olds in the UK are lying on their CVs this year compared with last, a poll has found.

Of 4,735 job applications from all age groups sent to finance firms between June last year and this May, 899contained false information.Powerchex, a company which screens CVs and application forms on behalf of finance companies, found that of the 307 belonging to under-21s, 18% contained lies, an increase of 29% from last year, when only 14% of forms contained false information.

Under-21s are now the most likely to lie on job forms, the company says. Their most common lie was to claim a 2:1 university degree when they had been awarded a 2:2.

Others exaggerated menial jobs to make themselves sound more important. Another common lie was to claim they had left a job because their contract had expired rather than because they had been made to leave.

This year's final-year university students face the highest levels of graduate unemployment in a generation.

Alexandra Kelly, managing director of Powerchex, said: "The pressure of the recession on job markets seems to have led more applicants to believe that they should lie or make embellished claims to get jobs."